SHEEP. 207 



dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth." By good 

 keeping and kind usage, this dread has been overcome in many 

 of the imported breeds, and they are docile and easily managed. 



Some say that they do not want the care of sheep and a dairy 

 both. Are we not at this time suffering in this county from 

 this feeling ? If we had continued more in the mixed hus- 

 bandry practiced fifty years ago, who doubts that our pastures 

 would have been better than they are now ? It is well for the 

 mechanic and the manufacturer to concentrate all their powers 

 upon one object, but the producer must not rely exclusively 

 upon one article. We had a strong illustration of the evil of 

 this in Ireland, when the potato rot came ; and the onion maggot 

 and the cattle disease are teaching us that mixed husbandry 

 is the safest. 



Are sheep profitable ? We will give a few facts which have 

 recently come under our own observation. A neighbor of the 

 chairman bought, last December, eight sheep, for two dollars 

 and fifty cents each. They were wintered upon poor hay and 

 turnips. In July he sold eight lambs for three dollars and 

 ninety cents each ; the wool was probably worth over one dollar 

 per head. We saw Mr. Page's flock, of South Danvers, last 

 winter. He had thirty. The butcher told us that he paid 

 him one hundred and seven dollars for lambs they brought, 

 and had a good bargain. We were looking at Mr. N. Pope's 

 sheep early in June, 1859. He had five sheep, which brought 

 him ten lambs. He said the butcher offered him forty-five 

 dollars for the lambs a few days before. We know that good 

 lamb sells as high in our markets in May, June and July, as 

 good poultry does in November, December and January, and 

 we think it can be raised much cheaper. 



Sheep are very social in their habits. If many are kept, 

 they will not mate with the cows or other stock upon the farm ; 

 but if we put one or two with the cows, they soon become 

 attached to them and seldom leave them. By beginning in 

 this way, we can keep a few sheep with our cows without much 

 trouble. 



We think that we are favorably situated in this county for 

 raising lambs for early market. Sheep are fond of salt hay 

 and the coarser grasses that grow upon our fresh meadows, 

 particularly the Osmimda Spectabilis, or buckhorn. By giving 



